In the language of Mr. Madison, speaking on this very subject in the forty-eighth number of the Federalist: In a representative republic, where the executive magistracy is carefully limited, both in the extent and duration of its power.
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In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 9th of April last, requesting information concerning the African slave trade, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.
I certainly had no right to make aggressive war upon any State, and I am perfectly satisfied that the Constitution has wisely withheld that power even from Congress.
To this appropriation, for a wise and beneficial object, I have not the least objection.
And in the expressive and pointed language of Mr. Jefferson, when speaking of the tendency of the legislative branch of Government to usurp the rights of the weaker branches: The concentrating these in the same hands is precisely the…
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